[Epidemiology of malaria]

Abstract

Four parasite species, among which one lethal, at least 20 efficient vectors, spread on the most crowded and underdeveloped continents, where first antimalarials and insecticides were so extensively used for decades that they are now inefficient after resistances. It is today the sad medium on which malaria raged, spring of 1 million deaths and 300 millions cases a year, of which 90% in sub-Saharan Africa. In Africa, epidemiological patterns are widely different some to others, which explain unique control strategy failure and vanity. Waiting vaccines and new drugs, control must be centred on vectors control and multidrug therapy. France is the industrialised country with the highest number of imported cases (approximately equal to 7000 cases yearly), linked mainly to P. falciparum coming from sub-Saharan Africa and recurring in nearly 3/4 of cases in immigrants.